Credit/AdobeStock
The NCUA issued one consent order on Friday that permanently prohibits Kelly Jo Muzzana, a former credit union operations manager, from participating in the affairs of any federally insured depository institution.
Muzzana, a former operations manager at the $595 million Altana Federal Credit Union in Billings, Mont., used the credit union’s fraud alert process to steal more than $60,000 from members and to conceal her crime, court documents showed.
In July, she pleaded guilty to one felony count of embezzlement by a credit union employee.
From January 2023 through Dec. 12, 2023, Muzzana stole members’ funds by using debit cards, credit cards and account information to make unauthorized purchases. She created duplicate bank cards using members’ accounts and took members’ cards that were marked as undeliverable by the postal service. Muzzana used these cards to make purchases online and at retail stores throughout Billings, prosecutors said.
The former credit union employee had access to customer data and was responsible for processing Altana's entire fraud-alert process. This enabled her to process members' fraudulent spending claims to avoid detection and prevented many members from filing police reports, according to court documents.
Altana Chief Experience Officer Megan Kongaika said the credit union’s strong fraud identification procedures discovered Muzzana’s activity, leading to her termination. The credit union worked with local law enforcement and ensured that no members were financially impacted.
Muzzana’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 7 at U.S. District Court in Billings.
Contact Peter Strozniak at [email protected].
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
